Tuesday Nights’ Chats - a month of watching, listening and discussing all things renting and more!

Renters’ rights advocates, renters and the Tenants’ Union staff have kept busy over four weeks with a line-up of events taking place across Sydney over consecutive Tuesday nights, and that’s not the end of the streak.

On Tuesday, 4 November, together with Everybody’s Home and Wedgetail Pictures, the Tenants’ Union and Make Renting Fair had the pleasure of hosting a film screening of a recently released documentary: Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream? 

The film follows the narrator, comedian and presenter Mark Humphries, on a journey to understand the decades of political decisions, laws, and policies that have contributed to the outcome we experience today: a completely dysfunctional housing system serving only those with significant wealth, rather than providing everyone with a safe and decent home. The documentary also examines the various solutions advocates, engineers, and everyday people have come up with to try to improve this dire situation.

After the screening, the audience in Liverpool Powerhouse Theatre heard from a panel of speakers: Maiy Azize, a spokesperson for the Everybody’s Home campaign, Mark Humphries, the presenter and creative behind the film, Joyda Zinck, a local South West Sydney Tenants Advice and Advocacy (TAAS) tenants’ advocate and, representing the Tenants’ Union, Leo Patterson Ross. The panellists discussed the issues and policy solutions mentioned in the documentary that resonated with them the most, focusing on immediate rental affordability measures and long-term tax law changes that could see the Capital Gains Tax and Negative Gearing discounts scrapped, and the savings from abandoning that costly subsidy invested in building more social housing instead. 

The discussion concluded with comments from the attendees and the sharing of Everybody’s Home resources designed to help the audience transform their frustration with the housing and rental markets into concrete actions towards changing them.

The toolkit includes tips on how to hold your own screening of the Sold! documentary and engage your family and friends in productive conversation about the subjects the film raises. It also includes advice on engaging your local MP in discussions about the need for more social housing, along with a pledge card for the politician to sign and have their photo taken with.

The following Tuesday night, Tenants’ Union staff and supporters joined another community event. This time, we headed to Bankstown on Dharuk country, where Sydney Alliance held a Listening Event for the local residents to discuss the everyday pressures most acutely felt by them and their families. This gathering was the 4th in the series of listening events hosted by the alliance across the Greater Sydney Area. On the night, the main event was preceded by a potluck dinner, which catered to all needs and tastes, offering everything from homemade dumplings, stews, and falafel to pizza, sushi, and hot chips.

At the start of the event, we heard from Nidhi, a board member of the Diversity and Disability Alliance, who described her experience of living “in limbo” while waiting years on a social housing waitlist. As a person with a disability, including a vision impairment, she has no choice but to wait until accessible social property becomes available before she can leave her family’s home and live independently.

A representative of the Arab Councils of Australia, Hala, shared the story of her migration journey from Kuwait to Syria and ultimately to Australia. Although her family’s story is that of refugees desperately seeking safety and stability, she encouraged people to see migrants, often labelled as “vulnerable”, as resilient instead. Hala called on the migrant community not to forget its voice and to speak up for its rights to equal opportunity and respect in Australian society.

After the opening address, we moved into small table discussions, focusing on the issues that most strongly impacted the people around us and the actions we could take to improve the lives of our communities.

Housing and rental unaffordability, as well as the lack of available social housing, were among the top challenges reported by residents of South West Sydney at the listening tables that evening. Unsurprisingly, the problem of housing and planning was the most voted-for issue during the final mini discernment activity, designed to identify pressures attendees urgently wanted to take action on. 

Another strongly experienced pressure was social isolation, which translated to building a sense of belonging in the South West Sydney community, being voted the second most important issue attendees wished to take action on.

On the evening of Tuesday, 18 November, the final Sydney Alliance Listening event for residents of the inner-west and inner city areas was held on the land of the Gadigal people in the Sydney CBD. This was the last opportunity for Sydney-siders to come together and discuss their day-to-day struggles with the cost of living, access to essentials, housing and sense of belonging in the community.

The attendees heard from a long-time resident of social housing who lives with her adult son with complex disabilities. She reported that crime in her neighbourhood impacted them, making them feel isolated.  They decided to find ways to volunteer in the community, and this enabled them to make new friends and connections for her and her son. 

Another speaker shared the story of their difficulty securing necessary repairs for their newly-allocated social housing property and the toll it has taken on their mental health wellbeing. They described the hardships of living in an unsuitable home, that’s unbearably hot, mouldy and still infested by cockroaches despite constant requests to their landlord and spending more of their weekly funds on pest control than on food.

Like in the case of the South-West Listening event, the outcomes of the final voting activity pointed to housing security, cost of renting, loss and inadequate amount of social housing as issues of the highest concern to the people in the room. The second most pressing challenge related to the issues around disability access to public spaces, social and community connections, isolation, and the rise in racism.

The final Listening event was not, however, the last Tuesday evening dedicated to community matters and grassroots organising.

On Tuesday, 2 December, the Sydney Alliance will be hosting a Citywide Re-gathering for all the organisations and community groups that took part in the cross-Sydney listening campaign to come together once more and reach common ground on the issues we will tackle together in 2026.

The Tenants’ Union will be joined by the emerging and established Alliance leaders from all over Sydney to reflect on what our regions have heard in their listenings and discern an Alliance-wide platform.

Email us on contact@tenantsunion.org.au if you would like to join the Re-gathering as our guest.

WHERE: St Stephen's Uniting Church- 197 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000 (opposite Parliament House) 

WHEN: Tuesday 2nd December

TIME: 5:45- 7:15 pm

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